Shealy, Knotts facing runoff
“People are ready for change,” challenger says amid contentious race in LexingtonSenate District 23
The GOP primary race for a Lexington Senate seat:
35 of 35 precincts — 100%
Jake Knotts (i) — 4,858, 45%
Katrina Shealy — 4,395, 41%
Michael Sturkie — 1,521, 14%
JAKE KNOTTS
- Age: 63
- Education: Midlands Technical College, 1975
- Occupation: Retired law enforcement officer
- Elected political experience: 13 years in the S.C. House and Senate
KATRINA SHEALY
- Age: 53
- Education: Batesburg-Leesville High School
- Occupation: Insurance underwriter
- Elected political experience: Ran unsuccessfully for S.C. House seat in 2002
It will be Round 2 in the combative match that pits Lexington County’s most bruising political figure with one of a handful of women vying for the S.C. Senate.
A June 24 runoff will settle which hand is raised to represent Lexington County’s largest Senate district.
Former Lexington County GOP chairwoman Katrina Shealy nearly matched Sen. Jake Knotts’ votes on a day with low turnout, blistering heat and evening thunderstorms.
The weather pattern reflected a mantra from Shealy backers: “Rock ’em like a hurricane.”
Early tabulations show more than half of Tuesday’s votes went against Knotts in a three-way Republican primary.
Shealy, 53, said voters sent a message: “Jake lost more votes than he won. The people are saying they’re ready for a change.”
Knotts, seeking his second full term, expects to be the champ.
“We’ll win it in two weeks,” the 63-year-old said Tuesday night.
He blamed the setback on the turnout and, “these third parties coming in and throwing all this money around.”
Organizations such as S.C. Club for Growth and South Carolinians for Responsible Government have ties to millionaire New Yorker Howard Rich and his agenda of deep spending cuts and tax credits for children who attend private school.
In another Senate race, the only remaining incumbent female senator, Catherine Ceips, lost her seat to Gov. Mark Sanford’s former chief of staff, Tom Davis.
Two other women didn’t face primary opposition and will appear on November’s ballot.
One other female on Tuesday made it into a runoff. Leah Bess Moody is challenging for a Rock Hill-area seat.
CRITICS: HE’S A ‘RINO’
Knotts’ critics say he is characteristic of what is wrong in one of the state’s fastest-growing counties — they call him a brutish legislator who has few guiding Republican principles but persists in office with guts and guile.
Shealy said Knotts is a RINO (Republican in name only) whose time is passing as the county becomes more sophisticated and more conservative.
On election eve after walking through neighborhoods knocking on doors, Shealy admitted she would be happy with a runoff.
Fortified by campaign contributions from Sanford and the groups with out-of-state connections, she focused much of her attention on pockets of the district where newcomers might have a bad taste for Knotts’ style.
Monday, in 100-degree weather, wearing white canvas Keds slides and carrying bottles of Dasani water, Shealy walked the Creek Side Farm subdivision in Lexington. She and a campaign staffer sought out homes of those who voted in the January GOP presidential primary.
Most greeted her politely but were noncommittal. Some told her what she was sweating to hear.
“I’m not really a Jake Knotts fan. It’s time to get out,” said Jim McGrath, a former Manhattan resident who moved to the county 10 years ago.
Many voters Tuesday seemed to agree.
“I’m a little unhappy with Jake Knotts,” Catherine Anderson, 66, said as she cast her ballot in South Congaree. “I have voted for him for years. He might get a wake-up call.”
Still, the incumbent’s legions also turned out for him.
“I voted for Jake Knotts because I’m against the voucher thing,” said Anne Harmon, who is critical of forces pushing school tax credits.
Monday, Knotts was confident as he drove his Ford SUV about 50 miles from one end of the district to the other.
He shook hands, slapped backs and kissed ladies after his “Thank you, darlin’” sendoff. He also delivered an eight-page newspaper mock-up extolling his accomplishments.
Knotts’ two mobile phones rang incessantly, requiring him to hold each to his ear to figure which one to answer, “Yell-ow.”
“People in Lexington County got a good horse and they’re going to ride it,” he said as he held court in Compton’s Kitchen, a popular down-home West Columbia restaurant.
Knotts hauls his 305-pound frame back to the restaurant for the Friday special, fried spaghetti.
“Need your help tomorrow,” he said to all who approached him as if meeting a good friend.
“Good to see you, Jakie. Keep them people straight,” one diner said to the blue-collar champion.
“I mingle with the working people,” Knotts said. “The real people.”
He is quick to draw distinctions with Sanford.
“These people don’t have the problems he’s got. They got problems paying the light bill.”
The senator takes credit for alerting public school leaders to oppose Sanford’s school voucher plan. “I stopped them dead in their tracks,” Knotts said of in-state and out-of-state advocates for private school tax credits.
During his cross-district trek, he stopped to ask his longtime supporters to distribute fliers and invited everyone to his Tuesday celebration.
He told many he accepted their campaign strategy advice. “I’ve been focused. I stayed cool. I was nice.”
One of his stops was to the Springdale home of Congressman Joe Wilson and his wife, Roxanne. She is one of Knotts’ key advisers and a force in county politics.
“She’s ruining her political capital,” Roxanne Wilson said of Shealy. “She’s toast as far as being a (future) candidate.”
Shealy fires back that Knotts is not a favorite of the county GOP establishment.
“My ties with the party are a lot closer than his,” she said, noting Knotts has backed Democrats for governor.
Shealy said she has taken her message of change and true Republican principles on a shoe-leather campaign across the district.
Unlike Knotts, who has one of the Senate’s largest campaign war chests, Shealy did not pay for expensive television ads.
But third-party groups painted the incumbent as a wasteful spender who supports money for pork and small-town festivals and who opposes government restructuring.
Mostly, the Batesburg native fought back against Knotts with fliers, radio spots and phone calls made by campaign staffers, friends and family.
Shealy touted herself as a loyal Republican who is more conservative than Knotts on spending and fiscal responsibility.
“I’m a fresh face, an open mind. I’m giving Lexington County a chance to have change.”
She is counting on a roundhouse punch to flatten Knotts in two weeks. “I hope I’ve made enough personal connections to get them back out.”
The State Newspaper
By Clip LeBlanc
June 11, 2008